It seems once again artists have looked past shriveling album sales and pooh poohed format worries while creating a truly outstanding crop of longplayers. Whether exploring the sinews connecting electronic music and jazz, amalgamating traditional African and house sounds, gearing up a set of club bangers or diving into unknown recesses in listeners’ heads, the 10 albums LWE’s reviewing staff chose represent the best 2009 had to offer.
shackleton
Shackleton, Three EPs
November 3, 2009 – 10:01 AM
Despite his dubstep pedigree, Sam Shackleton’s association with Perlon really hasn’t raised many eyebrows. “Blood On My Hands,” his seminal 9/11 anti-anthem caned by Cassy and eventually remixed to mindblowing effect by Ricardo Villalobos, introduced the minimal scarf-wearing set to the British producer’s tribal, ethereal take on bass music. By the time Shackleton returned Villalobos’s favor with his labyrinthine, original-besting take on “Minimoonstar” for Perlon in 2008, the technoid wing of dubstep — thanks in no small part to the Shack’s beefed-up Muslimgauze breaks — had already burrowed itself so deeply into techno that Shackleton actually felt like a logical and hardly controversial addition to Zip’s and Markus Nikolai’s fabled roster.
Moderat, Unofficial Mixes Pt 1
August 11, 2009 – 10:01 AM
Moderat’s album came and went, sounding exactly as everyone had expected while still being a successful and fully satisfying listen. Less successful, however, was the first round of remixes for obvious lead single “Rusty Nails.” TRG fashioned a peaktime remix that was perhaps too much so, while Booka Shade’s version was a thoughtless tech-house workout. Lucky for us, the Fifty Weapons imprint comes up with the “Unofficial” remixes on a limited, stamped white label that give two Moderat’s originals truly exceptional overhauls.
Shackleton, Shortwave/You Bring Me Down (Remixes)
September 15, 2008 – 8:10 PM
Of the new generation of dubstep producers, Sam Shackleton has proven himself to be the most receptive to crossing over with other genres in a mutually back-scratching manner. After famously remixing and being remixed by Ricardo Villalobos, Shackleton has more favors returned here. Reprising a combo first seen on last year’s Steingarten remixes project, Shackleton has two tracks from his forthcoming Skull Disco full-length remixed by Pole and Peverelist for a special vinyl release from ~scape, furthering the cross-pollination efforts.
Shackleton, Death Is Not Final
April 3, 2008 – 10:21 PM
[Skull Disco] (buy vinyl)
Shackleton is consistent. Starting with the first pop of a drum on his singles, the percussion stays round and full, the bass cascades with uncanny depth, the space between is frigid. Shackleton’s sound is dark, opaque. From the elegiac wind blasts of “Blood on my Hands” to the outright menace of “Hypno [...]